The Kalevala is one of the great epics of the world literature, along with the Iliad and the Odyssey, Beowulf and the Nibelungenlied, and was also also used as a reference by J.R.R. Tolkien in his own tales of fantasy, The Lord of the Rings.

Kristian Huitula's Kalevala graphic novel is the only complete comic adaptation of the epic, consisting of all the 50 chapters, as a 180-page hard cover edition in English ( American English translation by late Eino Friberg ).
The Kalevala comic book was also published in Russia in 2003. The same year Kristian Huitula was awarded as 'The Young Artist of the Year' for his work by the Kalevala Society foundation (FINLAND).

Since its first Finnish edition in 2000 the Kalevala Graphic Novel has become one of the best-selling graphic novels in Finland.

"Of the many illustrated editions I've seen in several languages, Huitula's Kalevala seems to me to be one of the best, refreshingly free of bogus heroism, kitch and whimsy."
-Keith Bosley, translator of the British English edition ( The Kalevala, Oxford University press )